The Centre For Social Cohesion

News arrives of last Friday’s motion passed by Britain’s National Union of Journalists calling for a boycott of goods and the imposition of sanctions on the state of Israel.

On Monday I reported on the vote by Britain’s National Union of Journalists to boycott Israel. It was picked up elsewhere too. The same day Caroline Glick cited it as one of a set of examples in her Jerusalem Post column about Britain entitled ‘The weakest link’ which sets out why Israel should ‘cease viewing [Britain] as an ally.’

John Reid, the foreign secretary, has defended - in unusually strong terms - a government decision to award a knighthood to Salman Rushdie.

"We have a set of values that accords people honours when they contribute to literature even if we don't agree with their point of view," he said.

"We have to be sensitive to the views of people of religion, people who have very strong views."

"But I think that we all appreciate that in the long run our protection of the right to express your views in literature, argument, politics, is of over-riding political value to our societies."

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, last night took part in a high-profile debate sponsored by The Spectator on the subject of 'We Should Not Be Reluctant to Assert the Superiority of Western Values'.

Defending the motion were Douglas Murray, Ibn Warraq and David Aaronovitch. Opposing them were Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple and Charles Glass.

At the end of the tense two-hour debate, the 700-strong audience were invited to cast their votes.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has told Parliament that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has begun drawing up guidelines to standardise which Islamic texts are stocked by public libraries. On 14 November, he told the House of Commons:

“The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to agree a common approach to deal with the inflammatory and extremist material that some seek to distribute through public libraries, while also of course protecting freedom of speech.”

Even Aitzaz Zafar’s lawyer concedes that the material his client and four companions had amassed on their computers was “unpleasant.”

There was a film showing atrocities against Muslims around the world. There were pamphlets exhorting Muslims to fight back. There was a suicide-bombing manual.

Three of the boys’ faces had been digitally grafted into a montage of the 9/11 hijackers. In another photo, two of them posed as mujihadeen – bearded fierce-eyed young men in combat fatigues.

But on Wednesday a London appeals court overturned the five students’ conviction last year under the 2000 Terrorism Act, deciding there was no proof that they had planned to commit violence.

Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, has released 'Fitna', his long-awaited short film about Islam and Europe.

The 15 minute production shows Islamic terrorist attacks interspersed with quotes from the Quran. It also describes the Netherlands as being “under the spell of Islam” and ends by urging Muslims to “tear out the hateful verses” from the book.